Conventional breast milk pumping equipment employs breast shields in which milk initially flows in a direction substantially perpendicular to the areola of a nursing woman's breast. For such flow to occur with reasonable efficiency, the breast shield must be oriented without any upward tilt, and preferably with a significant downward tilt, to have gravity assist the flow of expressed milk away from the breast. Given typical positioning of the areola on the nursing woman's breast, however, imparting a downward orientation to a conventional breast shield typically requires the nursing woman to lean forward, or at best, sit upright.
Few women find it comfortable to lean forward for long periods of time while pumping. Indeed, for some nursing women (e.g., recovering surgery patients), leaning forward to make a conventional breast shield work properly can be intensely uncomfortable and even harmful.
Thus, there is a long-felt need for breast-pumping equipment that can be more comfortably used. A reclining posture not only is more comfortable but also, with suitable “hands-free” equipment, can allow the mother to simply relax or engage in relaxing activities such as reading or hand work (e.g., knitting).
Although it does not mention anything about a reclining position, PCT Application No. WO 03/013628 discloses a breast pump “having a funnel with a convergent bell-portion for placing on the breast over the nipple, wherein a tubular outlet of the funnel leading from the bell-portion is angled out of axial alignment with said bell-portion,” see page 1, lines 8-12. As there disclosed, the funnel “can be adjusted to take up a variety of orientations to suit the woman concerned in finding a comfortable position for holding and operating the pump,” page 1, lines 21-24. The “axial misalignment” is disclosed to be within a range of 20 to 40 degrees, with specific mention of 30 degrees, see page 1, lines 20-28. However, this disclosure remains unsatisfactory because the portion of the passageway closest to the breast has an orientation perpendicular to the areola, which would still point upward if the woman were in a reclining position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,686 specifically mentions the desire to use a breast pump while in a reclining position (see column 1, lines 29-54) and attempts to address that need by providing a “bypass path” including a “bypass tube, pipe or other conveyance.” As disclosed, the bypass path collects milk from a part of a breast shield that is well below a nursing woman's nipple during use. The bypass path provides for delivery of milk in addition to, or instead of, a main delivery tube when the nursing woman is sitting in a reclining position, see column 4, lines 37-64. However, it remains desirable to collect breast milk in the reclining position directly from the nursing woman's nipple, without relying on transit of milk across her breast to some other position.
It would also be desirable to avoid a concentration of pressure at the base of the nursing woman's nipple, stretching of the nipple into the tube, and the pain and milk duct stress that both of those undesirable actions often induce in conventional breast shields. The tube that a conventional breast shield includes for conveying milk from the nipple is typically sized to be just large enough for the nipple to be pulled into it, responsive to pumping suction. A sharply defined, ring-like boundary typically exists between the tubular outlet and the flared remaining portion of the breast shield. In use, the areola and the less sensitive fatty tissue surrounding it are held in a constant state outside of that ring while the nipple alone is pulled into the tube. With each onset of pumping suction, more and more of the nipple is often pulled in, resulting in increased pain at the ring area for the nursing woman.
Further, it would be desirable to have a convenient, compact, and lightweight support system for “hands-free” breast milk expression, in which firm contact with one or both breasts could be established without the need for the nursing woman to maintain that contact by hand.